Deep Lily

The Deep Lily, also called "Tsuki's Sorrow" is an ancient, little-known flower, even to the natives, believing to date back to the Pre-Lilian era. It was believed to have gone extinct several thousand years ago, until it was recently rediscovered.

Physical Description

The Deep Lily as it is known, is a pitch-black flower of velvety texture. In addition, according to the notes made by the finder, the blossom produces a strong, blissfully-sweet scent out to a surprising distance. The scent, even up close, never becomes overpowering or unpleasant, even to human olfactory senses. The stem, from what she could tell, is a deep green, with two leaves sprouting from opposite sides. The stem is substantial, almost twig-like in its strength, but its surface is delicate and smooth like silk.

The observer noted that the strange flower's petals began to produce a strong smoke, similar in smell to sulfur as the deep, black evening sky began to give way to the navy blue of approaching morning, and further that she found it in the middle of a tall clearing in direct full moonlight, but with very little sky showing. It seems to glitter the faintest, deepest violet when in direct moonlight.

Biology

Though much of what is known about the Deep Lily has been lost over the centuries, its discoverer did make a few observations about the flower. Its aroma induced a deep sense of calm and relaxation, almost to the point of sleeping. It is believed that the Deep Lily reproduces itself by, once fully-grown, enticing an herbivore to consume it due to its enticing smell, and would be placed into a deep sleep soon after, ensuring that the consumed seeds would be passed nearby, and germinate successfully. The seed seems to be pure white, but react violently to sunlight, turning charcoal-black before bursting briefly into a tiny fire. It is believed that the flower blossoms only in very specific conditions, where only a very limited amount of moonlight is available. Blossomed flowers seem to shed their petals near dawn, and go into a hibernation state until the dark of late evening. The flower regrows its blossoms inside half an hour under appropriate lighting.

Lore

The Deep Lily is believed, according to incomplete scraps of Pre-Lilian legend, to be associated somehow with Tsuki. Some hypotheses involved the belief that if enough of the flowers blossomed at once, it would reach Tsuki's throne in the sky, soothe her broken heart, and allow her to shine like the sun again. Others believe the flower may have been attached to Inishie--due to its albino seed incinerating in direct light of too strong a source, and its eerily pitch-black color. The fact that it produces a sulfuric scent when burned may lend credence to this conclusion. Legends pertaining to the flower are far from complete though, or have forever been lost to time.

Conclusions for the flower's sudden disappearance are believed to be related to Inishie-san's many eruptions over the centuries. What scarce information is available implies that the Underhillians may have once harvested the flowers on a much greater scale for religious purposes, until their sudden decline and vanishing.